


Take The Time

by orphan_account



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Autistic Character, Friendship, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-12
Updated: 2014-08-12
Packaged: 2018-02-12 19:37:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2122203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A transporter accident changes Julian back into a child -- prior to his genetic enhancements. Miles deals with it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Take The Time

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bookhobbit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bookhobbit/gifts).



“Transporter room to Chief O'Brien,” says one of his subordinates, one of the Starfleet ones, by the sound of it.

“O'Brien,” he says, answering. “What's the trouble?”

“Something went wrong with the last transport. Can – can you come down?”

That never bodes well. He's seen a lot of transporter malfunctions in his day, maybe even more of those than on the holodeck, and Lord knows that was never working right.

“Yeah, I'll be there as soon as I can,” he tells whoever's on the transporter. “O'Brien out.”

He packs up his tools and hurries down to the transporter room, arriving a few minutes later. 

“All right, what's happened?” he asks the non-com working the transporter. She points to the transporter pad, where, dressed in a perfect, scaled-down Starfleet uniform, is a child. The kid is about six years old, in Miles' estimation, and looks kind of like...

“Is that -” he asks, turning back to the terrified technician.

“Yeah,” she says. “We got the rest of his medical team up, but we couldn't fit him in so we had to do a second transport, and then there was some kind of ion fluctuation, and it sent him up like this!”

Miles kneels down in front of the transporter pad. The kid, _Julian_ , doesn't look at him and continues staring at the blinking lights surrounding the transporter pad.

“Hey, buddy,” he says. “You remember me?”

Julian looks at him quizzically, all huge eyes. “Chief.”

Well, that's interesting. He remembers Miles, at least a little, but he isn't acting like adult-Julian in a kid's body. “We're going to see Captain Sisko,” he says. “You remember the captain, yeah?”

“Yes.”

Miles stands up and offers Julian a hand, which he takes, and the two of them head out to Ops. The junior technician still looks like she's about to faint.

He gets some weird looks as they walk across the Promenade – everyone knows Chief O'Brien has children of his own, but this isn't one of them – but he ignores them and Julian doesn't seem to notice, staring at his feet the way he is. Once at Ops, he steers Julian right into Sisko's office.

The captain is just ending a call with someone when they come in, and he's about to start yelling about “unauthorized intrusions”, Miles can feel it, until he notices the small lieutenant clinging to his hand and looking out the window behind the desk. He can see the moment the pieces click into place in Sisko's head.

“Chief,” he says. “Is that _Doctor Bashir_?”

“Yeah.”

“Why is he suddenly a _small child_?”

“Transporter malfunction,” Miles says, shrugging one shoulder. “There was an ion fluctuation when they beamed him up and he wound up this little thing. He seems to remember who we are, at least, but I don't think he's totally _Julian_ , either.”

“Does this mean that there's an entire medical team of children running around my station?!”

“No, they had to beam Julian up separately. The rest of them are fine.”

“Good.” He sits back down from where he stood up. “Now what are we going to do about this?”

“I'm not sure, sir. I brought him here as soon as I figured out what happened.”

“Take him to the infirmary,” Sisko says. “Get him checked out, see if there's something we can do. And tell Lieutenant T'kar that she's in charge, since Doctor Bashir is now _six years old!_ ” He shouts the last part, causing Julian to slap his hands over his ears and scrunch up his face.

This seems to switch Sisko out of “captain mode” and into “father mode”, because he immediately swings out from behind the desk and kneels in front of Julian. “Sorry, kiddo, did I scare you?” Julian nods, absently. “I won't do it again. Now the Chief is going to take you back outside – you like the Chief, right?”

“Yes!”

“Some things never change,” Sisko says, grinning. “And I'll see you again later.” He ruffles Julian's hair, which makes him frown and shrink back.

“Come on, Julian,” Miles says, leading him back out of the office and into Ops. Everyone immediately turns to look at them.

“Who's this little guy?” Jadzia asks, crouching down to Julian's level. “Nice uniform.”

“Hi, Jadzia,” he says, looking at the ground. Dax looks hilariously shocked, and then realizes who she's talking to.

“Chief, is that -”

“Yes.”

“How did -”

“Transporter. I'm taking him to medical now.”

“Good luck,” she says, still looking at Julian, who's looking at her spots. “Though he is cute like this.”

“Yeah, but 'cute' isn't what Starfleet's looking for in their doctors.”

* * *

“Patient's name,” says the bored-looking nurse who's running the intake desk. He doesn't spare Miles a look.

“Julian Bashir,” he says.

“That isn't funny,” the nurse says. “Though I don't know where Doctor Bashir is. He never showed back up after we came back from Bajor.”

“That's because he's right here,” Miles says, holding Julian up so he can be seen over the tall desk. Julian gives the nurse a blank stare.

“That's _really_ not funny,” says the nurse, wide-eyed.

Miles puts Julian back on the ground, where he starts tracing the letters reading “INTAKE” on the front of the desk. “Seriously, that's Julian. You can run all the tests you want on him. In fact, I encourage it, because he can't stay six years old!”

“Doctor T'kar?” the nurse calls, still looking shocked.

A Vulcan woman in a Starfleet uniform comes over. “Why is that child in uniform?” she asks, brow raised.

“Because this is your CMO,” Miles says. “Just run some tests on him, I'm begging you. He got caught in an ion fluctuation and the transporter shrank him down to a kid, and Captain Sisko wants him full-sized as soon as possible.” He breaks off. “Also, he says you're in charge of the infirmary until we get Julian back in order.”

“Yes, that would be the logical step, as I am currently only outranked by Doctor Bashir,” she says. “If what you say is true, and I believe it could be, as the transporters cause such fascinating phenomena quite frequently, a simple DNA test will prove it.”

Miles has often found Vulcans strangely obstructive in a lot of ways, but he likes Doctor T'kar already, if just because she's taking the story of what happened in stride.

“Who is Doctor Bashir's caregiver, now that he is a child?” she asks. “I would not like to run any experiments on him without someone else present, if only as a calming factor.”

“Uh, I guess I am,” Miles says. He's definitely going to have some explaining to do to Keiko later, but who else is going to temporarily adopt him, Captain Sisko? Major Kira? _Worf?_ “It's not official or anything,” he adds, “since this only happened about half an hour ago.”

Doctor T'kar nods. “I am willing to accept the consequences if this runs counter to any station or Starfleet regulations. Doctor Bashir speaks of you often enough for me to know you have no nefarious designs on his person.”

“No, definitely not. No designs at all, really.”

The doctor raises her eyebrow again, but ushers the two of them back into the infirmary proper, where she sits Julian on an examination table and Miles in a chair to wait.

The tests don't take quite as long as Miles would have expected, but it's still a few hours before Julian has been fully scanned, sampled, and examined.

“The testing has concluded,” Doctor T'kar says, bringing Julian back from where he was having his brain scanned.

“What's the verdict?” Miles asks. 

“It is an interesting case,” she says. “He appears to have regressed to the state of his existence at approximately the age of six Earth years, but retains some knowledge of his life on the station, mainly memories of his relationships with the other senior officers.”

“But he's not just _Julian_ in a smaller body.”

“I do not believe so. I asked him some questions of a medical nature, which he could not answer, intimating that he does not possess his academic training.”

“So he's just what he was like as a kid, but he knows who we are and where he is?”

“Essentially, yes.”

Miles is struck by a memory from about a year previous, when Julian's genetic enhancements were made known. “Does he...is he still...”

“If you are asking about Doctor Bashir's genetic alterations, the answer is no. Evidently his regression 'reset' him to a point before they were undertaken. This is his natural state.”

All right, Miles can deal with that. Frankly, having him as a normal six-year-old would be easier than having him as some sort of prodigy – he's got experience in raising kids, but not genetically-enhanced genius kids.

“That said,” Doctor T'kar continues, “if you plan on essentially raising Doctor Bashir until such time that we can restore him to adulthood, you will require certain information, though I do not believe I can release it until your guardianship is made more official.”

“You're talking about ...the way he was as a kid. That made his parents enhance him in the first place.” He has no idea what the actual terms for these things are, but he remembers Julian's description of it.

“I can neither confirm nor deny that.”

“It's fine, I'll talk to Captain Sisko. And my wife.” Wife first. He doesn't think Keiko will say _no_ ; she's fully aware of how attached he and Julian are, and has some affection for him herself, but it seems only right to ask her first, rather than getting it all set up with Sisko and then asking her.

“Good luck, Chief O'Brien,” Doctor T'kar says, giving him the _ta'al_. He gives one back, hoping that's the appropriate protocol, then takes Julian's hand and heads for the habitat ring to see Keiko.

* * *

“Keiko? Honey?” he calls into their quarters. Once the door slides shut again, he relinquishes Julian's hand and lets him explore. Except that instead of exploring, he just stands next to Miles, rubbing his hands together. Miles shrugs. No big deal. “Keiko? Are you home?”

“Hi, Miles,” she says, coming out of the kitchen and giving him a kiss. Then she notices the other figure in the entryway. “Is that ...Julian? What happened?”

“Everyone's catching on quick,” he says.

“He looks just like him,” she says. “Even stands the way he does. Now, why is your best friend suddenly a kid?”

He runs through the explanation again. Maybe he should have a pamphlet made up. _Yes, this is Doctor Julian Bashir. He is a child because of a transporter accident..._

“And they couldn't put him back?” Keiko asks, watching Julian warily. He's still just standing there.

“No.”

“So what are we going to do?”

“Well,” he says, scratching the back of his head, “I kind of thought he could stay with us until they fix him.”

“Oh.” She looks at Miles again. “Yeah, yeah. I mean, we've got the room, and no one cares about him more than you.”

“Except maybe Garak.”

She slaps him lightly on the arm. “Not the same thing, Miles!”

“I was joking! But thank you, sweetheart. I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I'm the luckiest man alive.”

“Don't you forget it,” she jokes.

“I need to go set things up with the captain. Can you watch him for a bit?”

“Yeah, I was just making lunch. If he's anything like Julian normally, I'll have to get something else ready, but hey, what are replicators for?”

“Thank you,” he says again, giving her another kiss. “I'll see you later. You too, buddy,” he adds to Julian. Miles reaches to ruffle his hair, but he remembers the way he flinched away from Sisko when he did it and stops mid-reach.

Keiko looks at her small charge. He finally turns to look at her, too.

“You hungry?” she asks.

He blinks.

“You're a lot quieter than the Julian I know,” she says, mostly to herself. “Come on, let's go into the kitchen.”

She replicates him one of the scones she knows he likes, sits him at the table, and hands it to him. He examines it thoroughly before eating, which worries her – maybe child-Julian is even pickier than adult-Julian – but once he takes a bite he makes a rather pleased noise before finishing it, so she considers it as having been a safe bet.

“What do you want to do now?” she asks him. If this was a normal day, he'd be at school with Molly, but there's nothing normal going on right now.

He doesn't answer, tracing patterns on the table instead. Maybe if she provides some choices? She knows that some kids need a little more prompting than others, and child-Julian seems so shy and unsure.

“We could play a game, or you could take a nap if you're tired, or do you want to draw?” She honestly has no idea what, specifically, he would like to do – adult-Julian's hobbies are generally not safe for kids, and adult-Julian is a genetically-enhanced genius besides. Keiko forgot to ask Miles if he was still an Augment, but she's willing to bet _no_.

“Draw?” he echoes, looking confused. Keiko goes to the living room, where some of Molly's art supplies are, and brings them back to Julian. Immediately, his face lights up. Apparently she guessed right. He takes a sheet of paper and some markers and sets about doodling. His pictures are even harder to read than a six-year-old's normally are, and he keeps dropping his markers, but he seems happy, so Keiko lets him keep going.

Miles comes back about an hour and a half after he left, carrying a couple forms. “Can you believe Starfleet has regulations about this kind of thing?” he asks.

“Yes,” Keiko says. “It did happen to me when we were still on the _Enterprise_ , remember?”

“Yeah, but you were still _you_ , just smaller. Julian went full child.” He puts the forms on the table for Keiko to look over. “Captain Sisko's fine with us taking care of him until they figure out how to reverse it, so we just have to sign these and he's one of the family for a while.”

“Miles, honey, Julian's been family for a long time,” she says, reading the forms. They seem to be simple temporary custody forms, albeit with a lot of caveats. She signs them.

“I'm taking these in right away – the doctor who looked him over before I brought him up here said she had some things to tell us that she couldn't without the forms.”

Keiko thinks she knows what it is. “Of course, honey. Do you want me to come with you?”

“If you want to,” he says.

“It would probably be best if we both go,” she says, thinking, “but I don't know if Julian would want more people knowing?”

“I'd be telling you about it anyway,” Miles says. “Might as well both go.”

“Come on, Julian,” she says. He puts down his marker and ambles over, marker-stained hands twisting in front of him.

* * *

“Chief O'Brien,” greets Doctor T'kar. “Mrs. O'Brien. Doctor Bashir.”

“Well, he's all ours until you can make him a grown-up again,” Miles says by way of starting the conversation.

“Yes, the forms have already been sent to me,” she acknowledges. “Now, I can disclose the findings of this morning's examination, as they are in the interest of keeping him in good health. The young Doctor Bashir has a Human condition known as autism spectrum disorder. Strangely, it is not listed on any of his official medical records prior to this date, but I suspect he was either never properly diagnosed, or his files remain the doctored versions from after his enhancements. I have taken the liberty of providing you with the relevant information from the computer system.” She pulls out a small stack of print-outs. “As a Vulcan, I am unfamiliar with the condition, but I believe this is comprehensive.”

Keiko pulls the stack towards her and begins to scan it. It's mostly things she already knows, from her time as a teacher, but there's likely something new in there. “Did Julian ever tell you he was autistic?” she asks, once the three of them are headed back to the habitat ring.

“No,” Miles says. “I'm not sure he knew – when he told me about why his parents had him resequenced he didn't use any medical jargon at all.”

“Well, it's not a huge deal,” Keiko says. “We'll just have to make some changes and make sure he's comfortable, right, Julian?”

He smiles.

* * *

After reading the documents Doctor T'kar gave them three days ago, Miles has been worrying non-stop that Julian's going to turn out to be some kind of huge hassle, but he's actually the most easy-going kid Miles has ever known. As long as no one touches him without warning (if you ask him first he throws himself headlong into a hug) and loud noises are kept to a minimum, he's extremely happy, spending long periods of time just humming to himself and tapping his fingers on things.

“Is that ...normal?” Miles asks Keiko the first time he notices it.

“Yep,” she says, going back to her newest plant specimen after checking. “He's just expressing himself.”

“He never did that sort of thing as a grown-up.”

“Well, for one thing, non-autistic people train them out of it a lot, and for another we don't know how much the genetic resequencing changed his brain.”

“I guess. Still, it's a good thing we don't have to put him in school; I don't think the other kids would get it.”

“Yeah,” Keiko says, remembering some of the schoolyard bullying she saw as station's schoolmaster. “Molly doesn't seem to care, though.”

It's true. After a long, arduous explanation that _yes, that's Uncle Julian_ , she's been nothing but good to him – she's fine with letting him use her toys and helps him with anything his lower-quality hand-eye coordination won't let him do. Right now she's flopped on the floor next to him with a picture book.

“It's still weird,” Miles continues.

“What, the stimming?”

“No, no. Just the difference between this and Julian as a grown-up. I would have always thought he was a pretty serious kid, always reading and asking tons of questions, you know? Or at least that he'd never stop talking.”

“He still makes a lot of noise,” Keiko points out. It's true – though he's capable of speech, he doesn't seem to like to talk very much, preferring to communicate through different noises and pointing at things. “Like I said, after what his parents did to him he was probably really different.”

Miles sighs, joining her at the table. “I still can't believe they'd do that to him. I mean, I never really got it in the first place, but now that I've actually seen Julian as a kid it's even harder to believe.”

“Some people have different priorities,” Keiko says, but she looks sad when she says it. “They wanted a smart kid instead of a happy one.”

He's torn between wanting to cry and wanting to hop the first transport to Earth to punch Julian's father square in the face. How could anyone look at this joyful little kid and want to throw that away? And he thinks Julian's plenty smart this way – he listens to everything Miles and Keiko tell him, even if he never looks like he is, and he's rampantly curious about everything, even if he prefers to study it alone rather than ask questions. He may not be able to read or write, but hey, Miles is no poet either.

Keiko takes his hand. “I know, sweetheart. At least if he has to grow up again he can do it however he wants.”

That provides an entirely different conundrum to Miles. If they figure out how to put him back, will he have to decide whether to give Julian back his super-brain, or will that even be a choice? And if it is, how's he supposed to know which one to pick?

* * *

About eight days after the accident, Julian's still six years old. Miles is just starting to wonder if medical's forgotten about him when someone hits the O'Brien's door chime.

“Good evening, Chief.”

“Garak!” he says, legitimately surprised. He hasn't side hide nor hair of the tailor since the malfunction, which he can't decide is either completely in-character or very strange. “W-what are you doing here?”

“I have just returned from a conference on Deltavia VI, and everyone I've asked about Doctor Bashir's whereabouts has simply told me to come here.”

“How long have you been gone?!”

“A week,” Garak answers. “Why?”

“Well, something's happened while you were away.”

“Oh?”

“To Julian.”

Garak carefully keeps his face neutral, but even Miles can see the concern behind his eyes. “Is he all right? I would hate to find out that the only half-decent company on this station had up and left.”

“He's fine, just a little. Different.”

“How different?”

“It'll probably be easiest to show you.” He leads Garak into the dining room, where Julian has busied himself with some plastic building blocks. He's become quite attached to them.

“Garak!” he says, immediately getting up from the table and throwing his arms around Garak's waist. He looks so shocked by this development that Miles wishes he had some sort of recording device.

“Doctor? Is that you?” he asks, disentangling himself and kneeling down. “Certainly looks like you.”

“Transporter malfunction,” Miles says, for what feels like the umpteenth time.

“Oh, dear. I suppose I shan't expect you to have finished _A Shadow Across Palati'or_ now.”

“That one of your huge books?” Miles asks.

“Yes, we were planning on discussing it upon my return, though I imagine – what are you _doing_ , Doctor?” Julian's reached up to touch Garak's eyebrow ridges, humming quietly in the way that usually means “I am enjoying the texture of this item”.

“Julian!” Miles exclaims, and he immediately retracts his hand. “Remember, you have to ask people before you touch them.”

He nods. “Sorry.”

“Quite all right. You just surprised me.” He stands up. Julian wanders back to his blocks, not interested in the adults' conversation. “I have to admit, this is not what I would have expected from him as a child.”

“Me neither,” Miles says, “but he's a good kid.”

“Hm,” Garak says, non-committally. “I imagine he will be a very different Doctor Bashir once they return him to adulthood.”

“What makes you say that?”

“Genetic enhancement is illegal in the Federation. What makes you think that they would re-augment our friend here?”

He hasn't really considered the possibility that they'd outright refuse. It _would_ make Julian an entirely different person, to grow up without his augmentations, even in the span of a few seconds. What would that version of him be like? Would he still be a doctor, or was that all the enhancement? He and Keiko are really going to have to make some serious decisions for whenever medical (or he and the rest of the transporter engineers) solves the problem.

“I'll come by tomorrow with some clothes for him,” Garak says after watching him go through several emotions. “I imagine you didn't have many lying around.”

“Yeah, thanks, Garak,” he says, sitting down on the couch.

“Goodbye, Doctor,” Garak calls into the dining room.

“Bye, Garak!” Julian says, not looking up from his drawings.

* * *

“His pattern in the transporter is still him as a child,” one of the technicians tells Miles when he asks about the progress of the project. “Medical is going to have to provide us with aged-up DNA for us to be able to rebuild it.”

“The DNA is being aged as we speak, Chief,” one of the nurses tells him when he asks the infirmary staff about it. “It's going to be a few more hours, at least.”

“Looks like you're stuck as a kid for a bit longer,” he tells Julian when he gets home. “Hope we're doing okay by you.”

He tilts his head when he looks at Miles. _I didn't understand the question._

“Are you happy?”

That earns a big smile and a fervent nod. 

“Good. Let's go get some dinner, kiddo.”

* * *

He gets a page in the middle of the night. “Chief, they've rebuilt Doctor Bashir's pattern. Figured you should know as soon as possible.”

“I'll bring him down right away,” he says, getting dressed, then helping Julian with his own preparations. As an afterthought, they stop by his quarters to get one of his uniforms in case the clothes don't change with him this time.

“You ready to be grown-up again, buddy?”

“Grown-up,” he says.

Miles is torn, now. Julian can't really seem to answer the question – is it okay for Miles to make the choice for him? He stands there deliberating for a few moments, watching Julian run his hand over the panelling of the wall. In the end, he decides that it's probably best to age him up again, and if he remembers and is upset, well. Miles will take whatever punishment Julian can dish out.

Captain Sisko and a crowd of technicians, both Starfleet and Bajoran, are crammed into the transporter room when they enter.

“Sir,” Miles says to Sisko. 

“Chief.”

He gets Julian to stand on the transporter pad, and they beam him away, then back again. It's all rather anticlimactic. But Miles supposes that's a good thing; means nothing went wrong in transport. And when he coalesces on the transporter pad, it's the Julian Miles has always known. It looks like whatever DNA sample medical used was from his adult self – enhancements included. Miles isn't sure if he's relieved or not.

“Hello, everyone,” he says, looking a little embarrassed in front of all the staring eyes. “Sir. Chief.”

With the transport successful, most of the technicians leave, making the room much less claustrophobic.

“How do you feel, Doctor?” Sisko asks.

“Hard to explain,” he says. “I feel like I always do, except for that short break I just had.”

“So you remember?”

“Bits and parts. Thank you for letting me stay with you, Chief.”

“You're welcome.”

“I'll leave you two to it,” Sisko says. “Glad to have you back.” He leaves.

“I hope I wasn't too much trouble for you,” Julian says as they walk back to the habitat ring. “God knows my parents thought so.”

“Are you kidding? Julian, I've had _goldfish_ more demanding. You were easy, once we figured out your rules.”

“But -”

“No buts,” Miles says, holding up a hand. “I remember what you told me about yourself last year, why your parents had you resequenced. Well, I can tell you it was all shite.”

“Chief!”

“You were just a kid, Julian. Sure, you freaked out when we tried to give you peaches or anyone talked too loud, but it wasn't anything we couldn't handle.”

“But I remember how, how...hard it was to think clearly. I couldn't read, or write, or talk most of the time. Wasn't that hard for you?”

“It was probably harder for you,” Miles answers. “You're used to your brain running twenty times faster than everyone else's now, and you were brought down to 'only as fast as everyone else'. And sure, it wasn't the kind of stuff we get from Molly, but you were making yourself understood just fine, if anyone cared to look. Honestly, Julian, you were autistic, not some sort of horrible burden.” He pauses to consider word choice. “Were or are, I'm not sure. But it's just you.”

“I'm not sure either,” he says. “My parents never had me properly examined, as far as I know, and the enhancement has affected a lot of the traits to the point where I probably don't qualify for a diagnosis.” 

“Is that really important?”

“No, I suppose not. I certainly identify with it, and I still can't stand peaches.”

Miles claps him on the shoulder. “I'll be sure never to give you any.”


End file.
